What Runs Deeper
by Mindy1
Summary: Blood runs deeper than water. But what runs deeper than blood? (Reformatted)


What Runs Deeper.  
  
Hi Everyone! In case you haven't read author notes yet, allow me to fill you in. I'm kinda issuing a contest, which is really stupid on account I'm a pretty new writer, especially here at ff.net, and I probably don't have the talent or skill yet to be doing such a thing. Oh well, can't blame me for trying! Over the next few days, I'm going to be writing a few different teasers, I don't know how many. You choose the pairing. The amount of reviews I get will determine which ones, if any, I continue. School will be over for me soon, end of June, and then I'll be able to continue them depending on which one gets the most reviews! Oh, and I don't own anything!  
  
The moon rose silently over the trees, casting out it's mysterious light and setting all the tree's before it aglow with a silver flame. The night holds power, and everything that lives under the silver light is blessed. Whether the blessing is for good or evil is an entirely different matter. For the night is a different world, one very different from the fiery reaches of the suns time upon the horizon.  
  
Strange howls slice through the air, followed by the thumping of many feet. Snarls, cries, and echoes that sound far to familiar to the light tones of human speech for comfort. The tearing of flesh, the grinding of bone, and the suction of blood soiling the earth.  
  
A sliver of blonde glinted between the tree's safety. Wide blue eyes hidden behind hands of innocence. So young, so small. To afraid to utter a sound, save for a tiny whimper on occasion. Suite and blood covered her hands and face; her hair and skin, but she dare not move. Her father had told her to stay here, remain hidden within the shelter of the tree's. He had covered her with dirt and ash until the young girl had begun to heave from the wretched smell. Her father had yelled at her, hissed at her to be quiet and that he'd be back for her.  
  
That's when the silver light had cast the tree's aflame, and the howling had started. The sound, far to high to be the sound of a wolf, and far to low to be of the voice of any sane creature. Her father had grabbed his shot gun and ran back to the wooden cabin, yelling at her one last time to be as silent as the dead.  
  
And that's what she had done, remained smothered within the silence.  
  
But, the sound grew now, that disgusting, horrible howling came and drowned out everything else. The girl clenched her eyes tightly shut and clamped her hands down over her ears.  
  
A horrible smell seemed to rot the very air itself and slip up the girls nose. She couldn't help it, the smell was to awful, and the nose was so loud, surely it was safe.  
  
Crinkling her nose, she placed her hands to her lips and released a stifled cough.  
  
And the howling ceased. Just like that.  
  
Slowly, the girl opened her eyes and blinked as those innocent depths adjusted to the darkness around her. Simple curiosity flickered across her features as she turned her head one way, then the other.  
  
At first, the girl didn't move. If the sound was gone then surely her father and mother would return, just as they'd promised her. She stayed that way, sitting cross legged amongst all the dirt and grime, for about ten minutes. Then, the ash upon her skin tickled her nose and she was forced to sneeze.  
  
The sudden action shattered the fear that had previously consumed her.  
  
"I can't stay here." She struggled to her feet, visibly shaking. "Mommy and daddy won't come here, it smells to bad."  
  
Although the howling seemed to have been swallowed by the night, the smell of rotten flesh and stale blood still lingered on the air.  
  
Shaking the grime from her dress and hair, she stepped out of the shelter of the tree's and looked around.  
  
That was funny, she could have sworn that where that big pile of red wood was, was where her house had been just thirty minutes ago. Had she gotten turned around in the tree's?  
  
"Oh no!" She clamped her hands over her mouth as her eyes grew wide. Her voice came muffled through her fingertips. "Am I lost?! How will mommy and daddy find me!?"  
  
Something sparkled in the distance, somehow reaching across the recesses of the silver night to reach the young girls eyes, whom narrowed them to somehow see across the distance.  
  
What sparkled like that? Apples didn't, and whatever it was was within the apple orchard.  
  
Suddenly, she smiled and laughed, instantly beginning to runs towards it.  
  
Gold! The sparkly thing was gold! Only her mommy wore gold! A gold ring! And it was coming from the orchard! Her daddy had hidden her within the tree's because he'd said that they were safe, so of course he would have taken mommy and hid in even more trees!  
  
It must all have been a game! To see if she could stay quiet for as long as she had!  
  
"Mommy! Daddy!" She picked up the ends of her skirt and stumbled down the small muddy hill into the forbidding shadows of the trees. "I did it! See! I was good! I didn't make a sound! I'm a good girl daddy! See! I'm a good..."  
  
To red forms lay in crumbled heaps among what appeared to be trees stained red. The gold,was upon one of the forms.  
  
"...girl." She stopped, then tentatively took a step forward. Peaking around the shadows and darkness. "Daddy? Mommy? What's wrong? Get up..."  
  
She slipped and landed on her stomach, next to the two objects on the ground. "Oof...Ow." A new smell flooded her nostrils, radiating from the earth. The young girl pulled herself away from the ground to look down at it.  
  
Red. The mud, the earth, it was all red!  
  
The girl gasped and quickly pulled herself back up. Red! Her dress, her hair, her face. And the smell!  
  
"M-mommy?" Turning her head, she came face to face with the red face of a young woman. Eyes filled with terror and lips frozen saying a single word.  
  
Usagi.  
  
"D-daddy.." Usagi, wide eyed, began to shuffle away from the two lifeless forms, soaked within their own blood. "N-o...NO!"  
  
Her parents! They were red! Why were they red!? Why was everything red!? The colour of her skin when she scraped her knee, or cut herself with a knife. Why?!  
  
The howling began again, louder and closer than it had ever been, or than Usagi had ever dreamed it could be.  
  
"Daddy....?" Slowly, she turned around and came face to face with a creature of her nightmares. Poison yellow eyes surrounded by dark brown fur that was caked with blood. Black teeth pulled back into a snarl.  
  
Producing the howl, that howl that must have been the last thing her parents had heard.  
  
The gapping mouth suddenly seemed to stretch wider, and lunge towards Usagi's bared throat.  
  
And then, everything went black.  
  
***********************  
  
"Kenji. KENJI! Come here! Quick!" A woman with wavy blue hair quickly kneeled down on her door step. "Oh my Heavens, Kenji! Come here!"  
  
The woman's hand gently stretched out to brush away the hair from something that lay on her door step.  
  
A man who could only be Kenji quickly stepped out, his eyes widening instantly behind strange glass lenses. "Ikari! What..." He found no more words and simply placed the blankets he'd brought with him next to his wife. "Is it alive?"  
  
Quickly, Ikari placed her ear over the figures chest, and then sighed in relief. "Breathing and heart beat, alive."  
  
Kenji collapsed back onto his heels, his breath visible in as the first fiery streaks of dawn raced across the horizon. His face deepened in thought "..Come on, lets head back."  
  
"We can't leave h-"  
  
"We won't." He sighed exasperated. "If people see us here, like this, they'll assume the wrong things. Come on, lets go back."  
  
Ikari nodded, and gently wrapped the discarded blankets around the small figure. "How did you get in such shape, little one?" Pulling back the blanket, she stared at the small face of a little girl, coated with blood. "So young, how could you find you're way into so much blood?"  
  
A soft glittering caught her eye and she found herself staring at the neck line of the little girl. A gold ring proudly sparkled up at her, placed upon a pure black chain.  
  
"What in the world..."  
  
"Ikari!" Kenji turned around and picked up the little girl, blankets and all. He stared lovely at his wife. "Come on, lets go inside."  
  
"Sure..."  
  
Deep from the shadows, a pair of dark eyes watched. Their endless depths seeming as dark and powerful as the night itself.  
  
No one else alive had seen what he had, he'd ensured it.  
  
The creature lunging for the girl.  
  
He himself, quick as lighting, intervening.  
  
Howls quickly silenced as more blood seeped into the already scarred earth, by his own hand.  
  
Ironic how something that was necessary to survival could stain the earth, and the creatures of it, in such a way.  
  
A scowl consumed his features. He didn't say a word, simply turned away and seemed to fade away with the last remains of the silver night. Just before the fiery break of day claimed it's rein over the horizon again.  
  
Around his neck, glinted a black chain. 


End file.
